I watch a lot of Japanese TV to help me learn Japanese. It definitely helps, but the most amusing things I see on TV are… commercials. Sometimes they’re way more interesting than the tv show itself.

Here’re some that caught my attention lately:

Nissin Cup Noodle – Goro-chan version. Embedding is disabled, so just posting a link:
See on Youtube

Tsutaya – absence of rental fees, featuring Gackt

Nissin straight style soba – link at the official site:

http://www.nissin-ufo.jp/cm/massugu/cm01_30sec_1m.html

Pork noodles – again – official site:

http://www.082.oyatsu.co.jp/cm/love_l.html

Suddenly wanted to eat rye bread. It’s quite a common food in Russia, but practically non-existent in Japan. Which is a shame.

But one of my friends said there ARE few places where you can find it in Tokyo. One of them is Kinokuniya supermarket, you can sometimes find them in German or Scandinavian boulangeries. And guess what! I’ve been able to find it in Moomin cafe at Tokyo Dome City. One more reason to love the place 🙂 It was a bit expensive – 760 yen for full bread and 380 for half. But bought it anyway.

In case you decide to check it too – try to eat it with milk 😉

Also – Moomin Papa outside the cafe.

There’s a good point in having kitchen in your own room in a guest house. You can cook any meal more easy than in the common kitchen. Not that there’s anything wrong with common ones 🙂

With working in japanese traditional restaurant there’s no doubt that I decided to check one of the recipes at home. This time it was Goma purin – black sesame jelly. You have no idea how tasty it is. For reals.

Here’s the recipe:

2 teaspoons powdered gelatin
2 tablespoons lukewarm water
45 grams kuro neri goma

70 grams sugar
250 ml (1 cup) milk
150 ml cream

Put the water in a small dish and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Set aside.

Stir the sesame paste well to incorporate the oil and sesame solids. Put the sesame paste in a large bowl. Add the sugar and mix well. Next, stir in the milk a little at a time. Stir well to ensure that the sugar is fully dissolved.

Heat the softened gelatin for 20 seconds on high to melt it. Stir in a few tablespoons of the sesame-milk mixture. Then add the gelatin to the rest of the sesame-milk mixture and stir well.

Stir the cream into the mix. Place the bowl over another bowl filled with cold water and stir well until the mix begins to thicken. Finally, strain the mix and pour into custard cups or a gelatin mold.

As you see it’s quite easy to cook, so you can try it too 🙂

When I moved here, I wasn’t really expecting the area to be this good. There’s cheap supermarket just 5 minutes walk from the house, Mr. Donuts in 2 stations – you can go there by bicycle (and burn all calories on the way ^^), Lawson 100 – kind of cross-over between conbini and 100 yen shop, Daiso, cheap clothes chain – Notoya and a lot of other interesting places.

To think of it – while the room is a bit smaller than I had before, surroundings are so worth the move! And let’s not forget that I can go without transfers to my favorite place in Tokyo – Tokyo Dome City. TDC deserves the post of its own by the way – possibly will write it on weekend, after I’ll go there next time.

Small wonders – I discovered that I can watch BS II in my own room, and don’t need to go to lounge for it. Another cable program only shows sports, so I only tune in for sumo matches.

Also – went to post office to send presents to Russia, you should’ve seen me dragging all the packages %) Spent about an hour there, packing and signing. Hope friends are going to like the things I chose for them.

Anyways, it’s time for my beauty sleep <3